The Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) yesterday said that Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) presidential candidate Tsai Ing-wen (蔡英文) has “underreported the price of Hai Pa Wang Group shares that she owns,” to which the DPP responded by calling the claim “another botched disclosure.”
KMT Legislator Alex Tsai (蔡正元) said that he estimated the value of the group’s shares held by Tsai Ing-wen to be worth about NT$207 million (US$6.27 million), “which is significantly different from what she has declared in her latest property declaration, in which it is said that she has only NT$4.13 million worth of stocks.”
Alex Tsai explained how he reached the number, saying that Cheng Chung Co Ltd is run by Tsai Ing-wen’s brother and that it is registered at the Hai Pa Wang building at the intersection of Zhongshan N Road and Minzu E Road in Taipei.
“Tsai Ing-wen was given Cheng Chong shares, which means she indirectly owns Hai Pa Wang property, because Cheng Chong’s business is mainly about the Hai Pa Wang property,” Alex Tsai said. “Tsai Ing-wen’s said that she owned NT$4.13 million worth of shares in the latest declaration. The registered capital of Cheng Chong is NT$60 million, which means that she has about 6.9 percent of the shares. However, the value of the Hai Pa Wang property, valued at NT$1 million per ping, is about NT$3 billion for a total of about 3,000 pings [9,917m2].”
“In other words, Tsai Ing-wen holds approximately NT$207 million in Cheng Chong’s shares,” Alex Tsai added.
DPP spokesperson Wang Min-sheng (王閔生) criticized the KMT for “holding another bungled press conference based on false information.”
“The Enforcement Rules of the Act on Property-Declaration by Public Servants (公職人員財產申報法施行細則) stipulates that the price of securities shall be based on their face value, which means that Tsai Ing-wen has her 41,300 shares declared as being worth NT$4.13 million. And not only has President Ma Ying-jeou (馬英九) declared his property this way, but KMT Chairman Eric Chu (朱立倫), in his latest declaration, declared his shares in a similar fashion,” Wang said.
“Even Legislator [Alex] Tsai, according to his declaration made on Dec. 30 last year, had his [and his wife’s] shares of nine corporations declared as worth NT$9.89 million, at NT$10 per share,” Wang said. “This is common practice in property declaration and it was a slap in Alex Tsai’s face, who has deliberately misinterpreted the law.”
Alex Tsai’s “exaggeration of the floor area of the Hai Pa Wang building” is equally despicable, Wang said, as “the area of land Cheng Chong owns on Zhongshan N Road is 378 pings and the floor area is about 2,000 pings, not 3,000 pings as claimed by Alex Tsai.”
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